Next in line for £135m retail park and Castleford community stadium plan

A PLANNING application has been submitted for a £135m retail park alongside a new country park and 10,000 capacity new Castleford Tigers’ community stadium.

The Lateral Property Group is seeking approval from Wakefield Council to build The Five Towns Park on land next to junction 32 of the M62, close to the Xscape leisure complex in Glasshoughton.

Plans also include a 50 acre country park, a supermarket, petrol station and ‘high-quality’ shops.

The development’s first anchor shop has been revealed as a 6.500 sq mt Next Home and Garden Store.

The scheme, which would create around 2,000 jobs if approved, was first announced in March and Lateral has since held a number of public consultation events.

Feedback from the events has led the developer to change its application to include local match day parking controls, improved public transport links to the site and a roof on the north stand of the 10,000 capacity stadium.

Dominic O’Rourke, Group Property Director of Next said: “Five Towns Park presents a superb opportunity for us to continue the roll-out of our new Next Home & Garden stores. The store will provide increased consumer choice and new product ranges for residents of the Five Towns.”

Philip Lunn, Managing Director of Lateral Property Group said: “The news that Next has signed-up to the proposed Five Towns Park is a massive vote of confidence for the Five Towns area. Having secured Next, we are in ongoing discussions with other high quality brands who are interested in Five Towns Park. We expect to make further retailer announcements soon.

“After almost three months of public consultation, we have now submitted our planning application for Five Towns Park to Wakefield Council. We have received over 1,400 feedback responses with 86 per cent of those in support of the proposals. We would like to thank everyone for their feedback.

“As a result of the consultation, we have made a number of amendments to the scheme, such as introducing local match day parking controls, improving public transport links to the site and putting a roof on the north stand of the stadium.

“We are confident that our planning application makes a very strong case for the development which, if approved, will provide 2,000 much needed permanent new jobs for the area, along with much wider socio-economic benefits in the form of the community stadium, country park and major transport improvements.”

Subject to planning permission, Lateral aim to be on site in summer 2015 and complete the project in 2017.

Yorkshire-based GMI Construction Group has been appointed as the main contractor.